


Mhairie: American Gothic

by marysiak



Series: The Mhairie Stories [3]
Category: American Gothic (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 10:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6607828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marysiak/pseuds/marysiak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little unfinished piece of another Mhairie story from 1996.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mhairie: American Gothic

**Author's Note:**

> I've decided (just now this very second) that Mhairie is going to become a little more wide ranging that it has been so far. It is not going to be a single series but several series in parallel. Parallel universes to be precise. I write best when writing about myself, so rather than try and write about solely the characters in whatever book/show/comic I'm ripping off I'll write Mhairie into it. All of the Mhairie stories will have explicit content, some more than others. The original version of Mhairie will remain titled simply "Mhairie". Parallel versions will have a secondary title as seen below. Mhairie is human in this version. 
> 
> I'm not really sure who American Gothic is copyright to, but it's certainly not me. But this story is mine and anyone's who says otherwise is a pooblehead. I've not seen all of American Gothic yet as it hasn't finished  
> running in the UK yet. We just had the plague episode when Merlyn tried to kill everyone who was associating with Lucas. I probably won't refer to much specific continuity but any reference to who/what Lucas/Merlyn are is  
> based on what I've seen so far

**Chapter 1: Ulterior Motives**  
 **by Lady Amethyst  September 199** 6   
   
   It was so hot. That was what she noticed through her doze.   
   
   She couldn't sleep. She kept moving, trying to find a breeze, trying to keep as little of her body in contact with the sheets.   
   
   It made her feel ill, as if she had a fever. Perhaps she did, her body not used to having to cope with this sort of heat. Her vision danced in the darkness when she opened her eyes.   
   
   Dizzy.   
   
   Disconnected.   
   
   She slid out of the bed and hung out of the window, still no breeze. No air. She thought she would faint, but managed to stagger out her room and down to the kitchen. To the fridge.   
   
   She sank to her knees in front of the open door and rested her forehead on a shelf.   
   
   After a few minutes she sat up and drank down almost half a pint of orange juice.    
   
   She should have gone north, but she'd figured if she went south then she wouldn't have to worry if she had to sleep outside. Besides, she'd been paranoid about trying to cross the Canadian border.   
   
   She suddenly became aware of the fact that she was sitting in the middle of the kitchen of a boarding house, bathed in the light from the refridgerator,  stark naked. She closed the door and hurried back upstairs.   
   
\--------   
   
   She sat on the step in front of the shop drinking coke through a straw,  too aware of the paltry amount of money left in her bag. She wasn't going much further than this. She had to find somewhere safe to sleep that wouldn't cost her anything. She'd been hoping to make it to New Orleans, it had sounded like a nice place to be. She had thought she might be able to busk for money. This place was too small for anything like that, she'd be too noticeable. Too out of place.   
   
   Across the road a car pulled up smoothly and the man inside studied her. He pulled out the missing poster to confirm it, but he was already sure. She got up and started to wander off. He followed her until they were in a slightly quieter area of town.   
   
   She dropped her empty cup into a trash can and was about to move on when she felt more than heard a car pull up just behind her. Something about it sent a prickle down her back. She started walking again, ignoring whoever it was getting out the car.   
   
   "Mhairie Drake." It was a statement of fact, not a question.   
   
   For a second she froze, then she bolted. Or would have, had two hands not chosen that moment to capture her arms and pull her back against someone.   
   
   The world that she had built over the past month shattered. She had come so far, only to be stopped in a hick town somewhere in the deep south.   
   
\----------   
   
   The someone who had caught her introduced himself as Sheriff Buck and threw her into a cell. He had now returned and she had calmed down enough to get a better look at him.   
   
   He looked in his thirties somewhere. His hair was a soft brown colour and a bit too long for her image of a southern Sheriff. He was well built but not awkward, poised. There was a cold sensuality about him. An awareness of his surroundings, like a predator.   
   
   He entered her cell.   
   
   "You know, I'm surprised you managed to get so far as Trinity. Your picture is plastered over every building from here to New York. I guess your uncle thought you'd been kidnapped."   
   
   "My uncle can think what he wants, I'm not staying there with him."   
   
   "Well, that could be a bit of a problem. You bein' a minor and all."   
   
   "I'm old enough to have got myself this far."   
   
   "That's true." The sheriff sat down next to her. "But what money you've got left ain't gonna last for ever now, is it?" he asked sympathetically. "And there's not many jobs around for pretty young girls with no ID, in fact there's only one comes to mind offhand. And I'm sure your pa wouldn't approve of that."   
   
   She glared at him. "What my dad would or wouldn't have approved of is none of your business."   
   
   "Oh really. Well maybe I think it is. After all, it's my job to turn you over to the authorities so they can give you back to your uncle." She turned away from him and glared at the wall. "Now I don't necessarily have to do that."    
   
   She turned back suspiciously to find him closer than before. He didn't draw away. She felt a momentary flash of heat through her body, distracting her from the discussion. She nearly continued forward to catch his lips with her own, but stopped herself. She sat back, confused. "What do you mean?"   
   
   "Just that Trinity is my town and I make my own decisions. I'll turn you in if I think that's the right thing to do. As of this moment, I am not yet convinced." He stopped and looked intently at her. "Why do I get the feeling that you're not paying attention?"   
   
   She felt herself blush, embarrassed. She had been paying attention, just not to his words. It was as if the brief allusion to sex and the sudden nearness of him had switched something on. Made her suddenly aware of just how attractive she found him, to the exclusion of all else. She had been afraid when he had caught her, but looking back, all she could remember clearly was the firm press of his body against hers as he stopped her from running. His southern drawl and the way his eyes went from the cold steel of duty to the occasional hot flames of emotion.    
   
   The way they looked right now as he took her chin in one hand and pulled her forward.   
   
   Their lips had just met when the other man came through to the cells. "Lucas?" He stopped awkwardly as he realised the intrusion.    
   
   The Sheriff... Lucas... sighed and turned to him. "What is it, Ben?"   
   
   "Um... Mrs Arnold's on the phone. She says Steven's missing again. And I thought... I mean... I'll just tell her you're busy." He turned to go.   
   
   "Wait, Ben. I'll be through in a minute. Tell her I'll be right over."   
   
   "Um... right." The man, Ben, left.   
   
   Lucas turned back to her as he stood up. He held out his hand to her to pull her up too. "I've paid you up at the boarding house for a couple of weeks," he told her. "I never got around to putting up the missing posters they sent out."   
   
   "Why not?"   
   
   He smiled. "I know most of what goes on round here, I found you easy enough didn't I? Besides, like I said. I prefer to make up my own mind."    
   
   For a moment she thought/hoped he would try to kiss her again. But he stepped away and pushed open the door.    
   
   "You're free to go, miss. I'm sure we'll see each other again before too long."   
   
   She left with mixed feelings of desire and worry. If it had been any other man. Any other one of the Southern hick cops around here, that guy Ben for instance. She'd be out of there before sunset.   
   
   But it was him. And she'd never met a man that had created so strong a desire in her so soon after meeting him. Before she'd even known his first name she had let him kiss her.    
   
   But he worried her. He had just forked out a considerable amount of money, by her reckoning, to pay for her upkeep. Why? He wanted her, that much was obvious. But surely there were plenty of good-looking women around here who wouldn't say no to him. Why go to this expense? But the strangeness  if it matched with her attraction to him just made her want to find out more, the best way to find out why was just to wait and see what happened.    
   
   Besides, she needed him. He was right, she was pretty much out of money.   
   
\---------   
   
   Later that day, after dark, she relaxed in a hot bath. If she was paid up here she may as well enjoy it. The meals were all right and the other people seemed okay too. The little boy was a bit odd, though she couldn't put her finger on why, but the doctor seemed nice enough.   
   
   She shampooed her hair then lay back, ears under the water, muffling the sounds of the house. She closed her eyes and thought about Lucas Buck.   
   
   She thought about his intensity, his strength, his smile, his broad shoulders... but mostly about his fingers. She imagined the feel of those fingers against her cheek. Tracing down her neck and around her breasts. Moving in to circle her nipples, then away to caress her stomach. The world slipped further away as his touch became more physical. She hardly had to think about what he would do next, just relax as his fingers slid lower through the water. She cooed as they stroked between her parted legs then gasped and opened her eyes as the touch became too real, probing deeper.   
   
   The moment her eyes opened the touch was gone.   
   
   She glanced around the bathroom for a moment, warily, as if expecting him to be hiding somewhere. Then she pulled herself together and shook the steam out of her mind as she reached for the conditioner.   
   
\---------   
   
   Everything seemed perfectly normal again by the time she got back to her room. She gave herself a quick rub over with the towel then threw it on the bed and went to the mirror to comb out her hair. A sudden light in the room stopped her and she turned around, pulling her shirt from the chair to cover herself.   
   
   In the centre of her room stood a girl dressed in white with a foreboding look about her.   
   
   "It's not wise to take favours from Lucas Buck," she said.   
   
   "What are you doing in my room?"   
   
   "Ah'm here to give you a chance, leave Trinity. Whatever it is he wants, ah can't let him have it."   
   
   "And who the hell are you to tell me what to do? His old girlfriend?"   
   
   "Why don't you ask him who Merlyn Temple was," she replied, "and ask him what he did to her and her family."   
   
   She vanished, taking the light with her.   
   
   Mhairie was left gaping at the space she had vacated.   
   
\---------   
   
   Two days later, she was getting skittish. She hadn't seen hide nor hair of Lucas since he had released her. Nor had she seen any more of the mysterious girl, though she'd thought about asking the odd boy about her. After all they had the same last name.   
   
   She had however dreamt about Lucas the last two nights.   
   
   So if he wasn't going to come and see her she'd have to go to him. Or to the only place she knew that he might be, the police station.   
   
   It was quiet inside, Ben was at the desk reading something. She approached nervously. He looked up.   
   
   "Is Luca... Sheriff Buck in?"   
   
   "Sure, go on through." He pushed open the gate and gestured to Lucas' office. She knocked on the door, aware of Ben's curious eyes on her back.   
   
   "Come in."   
   
   She opened the door. Lucas was behind his desk, all business.   
   
   "Take a seat."   
   
   She did so, feeling suddenly insecure. Why was she here?   
   
   "Now, what was it you wanted to see me about?" Lucas amused himself by increasing her nervousness with his words. He knew she had no reason to be here but that she wanted to see him, but he wanted to keep her off balance.

   "I..."   
   
   Time to make a move, before she got too flustered and left.   
   
   He stood up and came round to her side. Then in a swift movement he seated himself on the desk in front of her, one booted foot on the right arm of her chair. He leant forward.   
   
   "Why don't you just tell me why you're here?" he asked with that slightly taunting smile.   
   
   Suddenly his presence seemed too much. She slid away to her feet. "I... should go, I'm sure you're bus..." she said as she turned away.   
   
   Lucas pushed the chair across the room and grabbed her left arm. "Oh no you don't." He pulled her to him and crossed his ankles behind her legs, bending her arm up her back just far enough to start to hurt. He squeezed his legs together a little, enjoying the feel of her body captured by his. The nervousness had gone from her face, replaced by a moment of surprise and then unwilling desire. Oh, he had been so right about this one. Pity he had to wait another four days before he could do anything about it.   
   
   "I wouldn't want you to leave," he said to her. "Without getting what you came for."   
   
   He pulled her closer into their first uninterrupted kiss. She put up no resistance, matching his passion with her own.   
   
   A little more resistance might have made things more interesting. He remembered the time it had taken to seduce Selena. But Mhairie had other things that made her interesting, her youth for a start. Selena had been regrettably legal by the time he'd managed to get a hold of her. Also Selena hadn't had the innocent look that Mhairie had, Selena had once been innocent but she had never looked it.   
   
   Besides, he liked the way she strained against the edge of the table to get closer to him. He slid closer so that she could bring her body fully against his and she willingly pressed between his legs. Her body moving persuasively against his growing erection.

   Damn, he was going to have to get her out of here before he ruined his own plans. But he couldn't quite seem to let her go. He had released her arm and his hand was twisted into her hair, the other massaging her ass, pushing her harder against him.   
   
   He was about on the verge of giving in to his needs when the contents of the room started hurling themselves around. The couple broke apart to duck flying books and the chair scooted across the floor to knock Mhairie down.   
   
   Lucas sank to the floor, trying not to laugh. *Oh, Merlyn,* he thought to himself. *You are goin' to be _so_ pissed when you realise what you just did.*   
   
\----------   
   
   Selena Kyle knew the moment she saw the girl walk out of the station. She could see the latent power in her almost as clearly as Lucas could. It reached out to her, but she was done with all that.   
   
   But she felt a sympathy with the girl, that had been her once. Confused and aroused and strangely drawn to Lucas Buck. Only to have him destroy her life. She should stop him, though she had no idea how. She was no use to him now, now that she was no longer willing to indulge him. There was a part of her that still longed for the nights they had spent together, the part that Lucas had released, the part that now revolted her. The things that they had done revolted her, she longed for the innocence that this girl still had.   
   
   She could blunt the power he would gain if she could seduce the girl before it was time. But she couldn't find it in her to do it, she was done with being the town whore. There was nothing she could do but warn her and hope that Lucas wouldn't find out.    
   
   She crossed the road and caught up with her. "Excuse me? Miss?"   
   
   The blonde girl turned around.   
   
   "Um... you don't know me. But I just wanted to give you some advice. I know you've got no reason to listen to me, but please, I've been where you are now. Don't give in to him."   
   
   "What?"   
   
   "He'll use you, change you. I... I just thought you ought to know."   
   
   The girl stared at her and then turned around and started walking, quickly, back to the boarding house.   
   
   Selena sank down onto a nearby step, knowing she had sounded more like a slightly unstable ex-girlfriend than someone with an important message. But if she said too much Lucas would find out, and then he would deal with her.   
   
   On the other hand... maybe she was just a slightly unstable ex-girlfriend.  Sometimes she just wasn't sure any more. About anything.   
   
\----------   
   
   All that day and the next Mhairie was plagued by the girl in white; watching her through mirrors and windows; always with that accusing look.   
   
   Lucas was out of town, or so Ben told her. He'd be back tomorrow evening. She couldn't wait that long.   
   
   Finally she turned to the boy, Caleb Temple.   
   
   "Caleb, can I ask you something?"   
   
   "Sure, ma'am."   
   
   "Who was Merlyn Temple?"   
   
   The boy squinted at her suspiciously. "She's... was, my sister. She's dead now."   
   
   "Oh, I'm sorry. I... could I ask... how she died?"   
   
   "You best ask doctor Matt about that, ah don't think ah should talk about it to a stranger." The boy ran off outside.   
   
\---------   
   
   It wasn't until the next day that she managed to get hold of the doctor. By which time she was seriously spooked.   
   
   "I need to know how Merlyn Temple died," she begged. "What does it have to do with Lucas Buck?"   
   
   He frowned at her. "That information is confidential I'm afraid. But I can tell you one thing, stay away from Lucas Buck." 


End file.
